Paranoid Park

The protagonist of this novel, told in the form of letters, is a 16-year-old passionate skater who is just completing his last year of high school. At Paranoid Park on the outskirts of Portland, he meets the real experts, the street kids from the lower class. One night, an incident occurs at the train tracks while train-hopping, resulting in the death of a security guard. The narrator tries to process his guilt and fear—especially as a police investigation unfolds—through a series of letters without a recipient. The book was adapted into a film by Gus Van Sant featuring amateur actors, which won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. In September 2008, the German translation of this gripping novel received the Luchs award from Radio Bremen and Die Zeit.

This is an unabridged and unedited text edition in the original language, with translations of difficult words at the bottom of each page, as well as an afterword and literary references.